The UFC is preparing to start off their 2025 campaign with a bang as the first pay-per-view event of the year, UFC 311 in Inglewood, California on January 18th will not only be headlined by a lightweight title fight between Islam Makhachev and Arman Tsarukyan, but will also feature a bantamweight title clash between Merab Dvalishvili and Umar Nurmagomedov in the co-main event.
Makachev vs. Tsarukyan was a match-up that had long been earmarked for this card, but even within the last week it had emerged that the fight was still not officially signed, but all the contracts are now in order and it will front the show.
The two stars had previously fought back in April of 2019, and though Tsarukyan lost that night by unanimous decision, the fact that he’d put up such a good performance despite the quality of his opponent and that this was his UFC debut meant that he still earned a lot of respect that night.
And now after winning 9 of his last 10 fights he now gets a chance to avenge that loss against Makhachev, who has since extended his winning streak to 14 fights, winning the 155lb title along the way and successfully defending it three times.
Meanwhile, there had been some debate as to who bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili would fight next, largely due to the fact that the newly crowned titleholder himself seemed like than enthused by the idea of making his first defense of the belt against Nurmagomedov.
However, Dana White had previously indicated that Nurmagomedov would be next, and that’s now proven to be the case.
A cousin of former UFC lightweight legend Khabib Nurmagomedov and brother of Bellator champion Usman Nurmagomedov, the 28-year-old is a perfect 18-0 in his career so far, including six wins in a row since joining the UFC in 2021.
As for the 33-year-old Dvalishvili, he holds an 18-4 career record, including his current 11-fight winning streak in the Octagon, which culminated with a title-winning unanimous decision win over Sean O’Malley in September.
Along with these two major title fights, UFC 311 will also feature the likes of Jiri Prochazka vs. Jamahal Hill, Jailton Almeida vs. Sergey Spivak, Johnny Walker vs. Bodgdan Gaskov, Kevin Holland vs. Reiner de Ridder and Payton Talbott vs. Raoni Barcelos, making for an impressive line-up to start off the new year.
